Gardening is hot! As temperatures soared to record levels for February the nation's gardeners got out to garden centres in record numbers to add some cheer to their outside spaces.

The GTN Bestsellers All Sales Index was up 8% on last year to be 15% higher than the average for February over the previous eight years.

One record month doesn’t necessarily mean we will have a bumper year, but with sales for March to compare with last year's “Beast from the East” lack of sales we are confident (given the Met office is only forecasting snow on higher ground during the latter part of March) that we will reach the end of March significantly up on last year.

The issue of sales then going forwards may be more of availability of plants and products as lines mature and sell through early and possible transport issues that could be caused by Brexit.

GTN Bestsellers Top 50 sales volumes compared to the same week last year: week 8